Manx English (Manks English), orAnglo-Manx (Anglo-Manks), is the historicdialect of English spoken on theIsle of Man, though today in decline. It has many borrowings fromManx, aGoidelic language, and it differs widely from any other variety of English, including dialects from other areas in whichCeltic languages are or were spoken, such asWelsh English andHiberno-English.
Early Anglo-Manx contained words of Gaelic andOld Norse origin, but also came to be influenced by the speech ofLiverpool andLancashire inNorth West England. The Manx historian and linguistArthur William Moore noted that the dialect varied slightly fromparish to parish but that the same turns of phrase and the same stock of words pervaded the whole island. Moore'sA Vocabulary of the Anglo-Manx Dialect (Oxford University Press, 1924) andW. Walter Gill'sManx Dialect Words and Phrases (J.W. Arrowsmith, 1934) document the high-water mark of this dialect.
The poetT. E. Brown was one of the first authors to use the Manx dialect in his work.
Immigration and cultural influences from elsewhere, particularly fromGreat Britain, have caused the disappearance of the dialect, with the exception of a few words and phrases.
Manx English has been unusually well-researched. In the 19th century,Kirk Christ andKirk Patrick were covered by surveyors working forAlexander John Ellis's workOn Early English Pronunciation. In the 20th century, sites on the Isle of Man were covered by both theSurvey of English Dialects and theLinguistic Survey of Scotland. The two sites for the former wereAndreas andRonague; the recordings of the local dialects are now accessible for free online via the British Library.[1]
Some of the following terms surviving from the original Anglo-Manx dialect are still in occasional use today.[citation needed] The task of identifying dialectal usage is complicated by the large cross-over betweenManx Gaelic, idiomatic usage and technical/administrative terms such as "advocate" and "deemster".
Lhergy – a hill-slope, or high wasteland.Goin' down the lhergy means "going downhill in life" (from GaelicLhiargee orLhiargagh meaning "slope")[3]
Little People – Fairies, supernatural beings. (from Gaelic usage; direct translation ofDeiney Beggey orMooinjer Veggey, "fairies" or "little people")[3]
Mann – the Isle of Man; e.g.Gaut made it, and all in Mann[3]
Manx andManks – Pertaining to, or originating from the Isle of Man.[3]
Skeet – News, gossip, and also to take a look (take a skeet) at something. Direct usage of Manx word "skeet" or "steet".[3]
Scutch – A quantity of something; e.g.There were a scutch of people there (from Manxscuitçh, see also Gaeliccooid, "selection", "amount", "number").[3]
Twenty-Four – TheHouse of Keys, based on the number of members. Recorded by A.W. Moore as "Kiare-as-feed", the Manx Gaelic equivalent of the number[3]
Yessir – Recorded byA.W. Moore in 1924 as a "disrespectful form of addressing a boy or man", used as an informal address to a local acquaintance in modern Anglo-Manx. Early 20th-century sources suggest that its origin may lie in a contraction ofYou, Sir, but Gaelic scholars have suggested that it is a hangover fromUssey, the emphatic form ofYou in Manx Gaelic, which is used in a similar context. Not congruous withYes, Sir in mainstream English.[3]
Words ofManx Gaelic origin frequently cropped up in the original dialect, as did patterns of speech derived from Gaelic usage. In modern usage, much fewer words of Gaelic origin are used, symptomatic of the decline of Manx Gaelic in its later years.
Garee – Wasteland (sometimes mis-speltgarey which instead meansgarden).[5]
Glen – A wooded valley (in Manx this isglioan orglion).
Gobbag – Pronouncedgovag, literally a dogfish, but used to mean someone fromPeel.[5]
Hollin andHibbin - holly and ivy.
Hop-tu-Naa –Hallowe'en. Cited by Moore asHop-the-nei, which he suggests originates fromHop ! ta'n oie but possibly cognate with the ScottishHogmanay, which is in origin not a Gaelic word.
Jarrood – From the Manx forforget; people will speak of beinga bit jarrood.[5]
Mannin – Manx forIsle of Man. Compare with Ellan Vannin; Mannin is the genitive of Mannan, the name of the son of the god of the sea (Líor),Manannán mac Lír.[5]
Mhelliah – A festival or party to celebrate harvest.[3]
Moal – Literallyslow, but used in the sense ofill.[3]
Mollag – A dog/sheep skin fishing float; e.g.,as fat as a Mollag oras full of wind as a Mollag.[3] In contemporary usage refers to asmall potting buoy.
Qualtagh – The first person met on New Year's Day,first-foot.[3]
Sally/Sallie – A willow tree, whence the placenameBallasalla derives, from the ManxShellagh, tr.willow.
Graip/Grep – recorded by Moore as "a manure fork", a hybrid agricultural tool that has parallels with theNorsegreip and the Scotsgraip[3]
Kirk – Church, used in parish names, ofNorse origin[3]
Sheading – An administrative district of the Isle of Man[3]
Tynwald – the Manx parliament, fromOld NorseThingvollr and originally written similarly to Icelandic with aþ which is pronounced[θ]. Thething means an assembly or court of justice and thevollr is a field or plain.[3]
V'eh mee-lowit dy enmys mwaagh er boayrd, as conning, marish roddan as kayt. Va'n mwaagh 'fer yn chleaysh vooar', as yn conning 'pomet', as yn roddan 'sacote', as yn kayt 'scraverey'.
It was forbidden to name a hare on board, or a rabbit, or a rat or a cat. The hare was 'the big-eared fellow', and the rabbit 'pomet', and the rat 'sacote', and the cat 'scratcher'.
Because of the unpredictable nature of weather in the Irish Sea, fishing could be a dangerous business – sailors were consequently very superstitious and it was consideredtaboo to use certain words or behaviours (using the wordconney for rabbit, or whistling, for example) whilst on board ship. Some names were substituted for others – "rat" became "sacote" or "long-tailed fellow", amongst other names.
This has evolved into a modern superstition in which the word "rat" (roddan in Manx) is considered unlucky, even when not used aboard ship. Although this particular sea-taboo was one amongst many and was not held to apply on land, it has become a popular modern belief that the word is somehow unlucky, and the sea-taboo has been adopted by some as a typical Manx practice, even though the old Manx people had no qualms in using the word, or its Manx equivalent,roddan. In modern times, even non-local and unsuperstitious people will refrain from using the word "rat", perhaps in an effort to fit in with those who take it seriously, or in an attempt to sound folksy. In reality this is a rather warped version of the original sea-taboo.
Alternative words for rat in neo-Anglo-Manx dialect includelongtail, iron fella, Joey, jiggler, queerfella, ringie, andr-a-t (a more recent expression).
